Impact of a Sophomore BME Design Fundamentals Course on Student Outcome Performance and Professional Development

Abstract

Christa Wille is a Biomedical Engineering doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering and went on to get her clinical doctorate in Physical Therapy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She advanced her clinical skills through a Sports Physical Therapy Residency at UW Health. Although continuing to practice Physical Therapy, Christa has returned to academia to continue to pursue research focused on gait analysis and the biomechanics of running related to various injuries including hamstring strains and injuries of the knee. Dr. Puccinelli is the Associate Chair of the Undergraduate Program in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He began here as student near the start of the UW-BME program and earned his BS, MS, and PhD in BME. He is interested in hands-on instruction -teaching and developing courses related to biomaterials and tissue engineering, as well as design. He has been awarded numerous departmental and college level teaching awards. He was recently inducted as a fellow to the UW-Madison Teaching Academy.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Impact of a Sophomore BME Design Fundamentals Course on Student Outcome Performance and Professional DevelopmentBiomedical Engineering (BME) students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison take seven semesters of required team-based design courses. Historically, students would develop technical skills as needed based on their project. Through engagement with our constituents we developed a more direct instructional approach at delivering essential engineering tools early in the curriculum. We previously reported on the creation of this new required second semester sophomore lecture and laboratory course with a guided design project: BME 201, "Biomedical Engineering Fundamentals and Design" (to replace one of the client-based experiences). Since then, this course has evolved to cohesively combine all three components into modules that represent the breadth of BME, including: electronics, programing (MATLAB, LabVIEW, and Arduino), mechanics (SOLIDWORKS, machine shop use, and biomechanical testing), biomaterials and tissue engineering (literature research, biosafety, aseptic technique, optics and material interactions) as well as other professional design skills. Despite being a relatively new course, we have seen overwhelming success related to student outcome performance in design by students since the implementation of this course verses its client-based counterpart. In addition, self-reported survey data from students upon completion of BME 201 felt this course was effective at improving their skills and their abilities to meet student outcomes. Finally, students also felt that this course was effective at influencing their academic and future career goals.

Design of Ergonomic Tools for Commercial Laboratory Technicians

“…Undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Biomedical Engineering participate in a unique curriculum where they learn through their experiences doing real-world, team-based design projects for seven semesters (Nimunkar, Puccinelli, Bollom, & Tompkins, 2014; Tompkins, 2006; Tompkins et al, 2002; Wille, Hess, Levin, Nimunkar, & Puccinelli, 2017). Freshman-year students work in interdisciplinary teams to solve community-based design challenges.…”

Benefits of a Low-Stakes Show and Tell Session in Biomedical Engineering Design

“…Teams found fellow students' suggestions to be uniquely valuable, but in the case of the final poster presentation, this feedback came too late to be useful. Additionally, our Assessment Committee, which reviews the work output from the spring BME Design courses annually, has noted that teams often run out of time in the semester for thorough testing, so it would be beneficial to incentivize them to prototype sooner [1,2] . In response, we devised a low-stakes Show and Tell session which occurs semesterly between existing presentations to capitalize on our students' aptitude for providing valuable verbal feedback.…”